Digital Thinking Quotes & Sayings

Lazy Line Painter Jane - it was an insane way to make a record! It was just in a church hall, no separate rooms for instruments, and a crappy digital desk, and I think it's fantastic. I think it's one of the best records we ever made. But if you actually said that to a professional recording engineer or producer they'd laugh at you. — Stevie Jackson

Depending on the budget. I think I prefer 3D to 2D now. Also, because of 3D I have to use a digital camera, which is the way it's going anyway. That still confuses me, a digital camera versus film. — Ang Lee

epistemological appreciation of the profundity of what the Internet offers humanity as a model of a learning institution.
To initiate and exemplify this rethinking of virtually enabled and enhanced learning institutions, we used this project to examine potential new models of digital learning. This project, in short, is an experiment. We engaged multiple forms of participatory learning to test the power of "virtual institutions" and to model other ways that virtual, digital institutions can be used for learning. The process itself informed every step of our thinking about new forms of alliances, intellectual networks, — Cathy N. Davidson

Focus on the part and the whole at the same time. — Pearl Zhu

The brain is the hardware, and the mind is the software, with the totality always in action, hardware plus software. — Pearl Zhu

I don't really listen to my old stuff, but on occasion, I would either hear a track on the radio or a friend might play me one, and there was generally a bit of an edgy sound to it, which was mainly due to the digital equipment that we were using, which was state of the art at the time - and I think everyone felt pressured to be working that way. — Kate Bush

And young people who are learning digital skills discover that the real challenge is coming up with an image that resonates, first of all, with your self and hopefully, with an audience. They can learn all these new techniques and think that they're easier to use, but creating great images isn't about the tools. — Jerry Uelsmann

We all belong to the C Generation-the connecting generation in the digital age. — Pearl Zhu

As an evolutionary biologist, I have learned over the years that most people do not want to see themselves as lumbering robots programmed to ensure the survival of their genes. I don't think they will want to see themselves as digital computers either. To be told by someone with impeccable scientific credentials that they are nothing of the kind can only be pleasing. — John Maynard Smith

I think digital. I think digital and I was terrified about it for a long time. But I think digital because it gives so much more freedom to work with the actors. — Fredrik Bond

I see things in the middle of the night. I draw them on paper and I don't even think about it. I'm like a machine in a way - just made of some electronic stuff. Vaguely digital. — Karl Lagerfeld

I think that film is still an artform and it doesn't really matter if you're using a digital camera or a film camera. — Vilmos Zsigmond

The depth of perspective and strength of character are what make thinking profound. — Pearl Zhu

Speaking the unspeakable. As a leader, you need to not just listen to what's being said, but more importantly, what's not being said. — Pearl Zhu

Those who applaud social production and networked amateurism, the colorful cacophony that is the Internet, and the creative capacities of everyday people to produce entertaining and enlightening things online, are right to marvel. There is amazing inventiveness, boundless talent and ability, and overwhelming generosity on display. Where they go wrong is thinking that the Internet is an egalitarian, let alone revolutionary, platform for our self-expression and development, that being able to shout into the digital torrent is adequate for democracy. — Astra Taylor

I think the thing that I love the most about working in the digital cinema is that you're only limited in your cinematic technique by your imagination - you're not restricted by the physical laws of nature. You don't have to worry about physically moving a 50lb camera through space, or worry about shadows and rigging. — Robert Zemeckis

He looked past Chin toward streams of numbers running in opposite directions. He understood how much it meant to him, the roll and flip of data on a screen. He studied the figural diagrams that brought organic patterns into play, birdwing and chambered shell. It was shallow thinking to maintain that numbers and charts were the cold compression of unruly human energies, every sort of yearning and midnight sweat reduced to lucid units in the financial markets.

"In fact data itself was soulful and glowing, a dynamic aspect of the life process. This was the eloquence of alphabets and numeric systems, now fully realized in electronic form, in the zero-oneness of the world, the digital imperative that defined every breath of the planet's living billions. Here was the heave of the biosphere. Our bodies and oceans were here, knowable and whole. — Don DeLillo

I think the key difference between the web and print medium is, on the web or any digital medium, you're dealing with this added element of behavior. — Khoi Vinh

I think that digital is offering many great possibilities for cinematographers. Particularly in urban cityscapes and low light photography its allowing us to render what we actually see with our eyes; which is interesting. — Seamus McGarvey

The problem of "Command-Control is that you can control people's behavior, but not their mind. — Pearl Zhu

Think like a publisher, not a marketer. — David Meerman Scott

Ecosystem thinking is systematic thinking about ecosystem and environment. — Pearl Zhu

Healthy debating enforces critical thinking principles - looking at things from the different angles, with increased perspective and less prejudgment. — Pearl Zhu

I think digital media is a valid tool, one that has it's own strengths and weaknesses. So often I see people dismissing digital art as somehow cheating or not as valid or important as traditional art, but the computer is just another tool. — Julie Dillon

As you go out to the 2040s, now the bulk of our thinking is out in the cloud. The biological portion of our brain didn't go away but the nonbiological portion will be much more powerful. And it will be uploaded automatically the way we back up everything now that's digital. — Ray Kurzweil

To be creative you must set aside both certainty and doubt. — Pearl Zhu

It seems that film-makers are being divided between those working in digital and those who are not. I think it's not something predetermined - it all depends on what project we have in mind, and on that basis we choose the medium. — Abbas Kiarostami

Creativity has often been analogized as "Thinking outside of the box. — Pearl Zhu

Designers from start to finish now in digital media have to think in a much more sort of thoughtful serious and humble way about how design audiences will receive their products. — Khoi Vinh

The discipline of focus that is necessary to think profoundly is certainly difficult for many people to achieve. — Pearl Zhu

Even if we grant that digital natives think and learn somewhat differently than older generations, we may be doing them a disservice to de-emphasize 'legacy' content such as reading, writing, and logical thinking, or to say that the methodologies we have used in the past are no longer relevant ... Digital immigrants and natives alike are bombarded with vast volumes of information in today's electronic society, which ... calls for an even greater emphasis on critical thinking and research skills
the very sort of 'legacy' content that teachers have focused on since classical times — Timothy VanSlyke

In an old model, the way a film would imprint itself on the public's consciousness is to get a theatrical run. But now there are more documentaries and more films in general being released than ever before. There are weeks when the New York Times is reviewing 15 films, so it's harder to leave an impression on the public. A lot of these films are seeing their financial future on digital platforms. Because viewers aren't hearing as much about films in theatrical release, I think the festival circuit is going to have increasing importance for the life of a film. — Thom Powers

I think that because of YouTube, because of MySpace, because of the digital domain that we have on the Internet, the younger generation is much more open to information. I think it's so much easier for them to gain information and trade information, and they have become more aware. In some cases, more aware than their own parents and adults, as to what's going on in the world. I find that really intriguing and interesting, and I think there is a brewing of a whole new generation of activists coming. — Serj Tankian

You know, I'm a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard - in other words a netbook - will be the mainstream on that. — Bill Gates

I think traditional is trying to go more digital and digital is trying to go more traditional. We're meeting in the middle. — Tyler Oakley

We have to start thinking of ourselves as citizens of the Internet, not just passive users. I don't see how we can bring about change in our digital lives if we don't take responsibility. — Rebecca MacKinnon

My first advice would be to read, read, read, which sounds interesting coming in a digital age, but it's so much easier to listen to a poem than it is to sit down and actually read it and to hear it in your head and that is something that every poet or aspiring poet needs to be able to do, I think to hear it in their head. — Rita Dove

I think my biggest advice to filmmakers is to look into the many digital platforms that exist for you and your team to distribute your film. — Aurora Guerrero

Anti-digital mindsets are those "status quo" types of thinking, authoritarian attitude, and bureaucratic decision-making. — Pearl Zhu

All these kids who are growing up on Skrillex and all this digital music- what are they gonna think when they hear rock'n'roll? — Ty Segall

I have 1.4 million followers on Twitter. I get very interesting, sometimes very diverse input from my followers. So it's sort of like this water cooler, digital water cooler, if you want to think about it, where you go and you listen to conversations that are happening that perhaps will shape your thinking. — Padmasree Warrior

Often old IT thinking cannot move fast enough in the age of the digitalization. — Pearl Zhu

The world used to think we are a land of snake charmers and black magic. But our youth has surprised the world with its IT skills. I dream of a digital India. — Narendra Modi

Just as the digital dominance of the recording studio seemed complete, analog had its revenge. Musicians, producers, and engineers searching for the sound of the music that inspired them - roots Americana, blues, and classic rock - began thinking about how the process of recording affected the sound. These artists, including White, Dave Grohl, and Gillian Welch, began experimenting with old tape machines and vintage studio equipment, returning to the analog methods they'd once used. Critics and fans noted that these albums sounded different - more heartfelt, raw, and organic - and the industry began to take notice. — David Sax

I like film because it brings you very close to the absurd reality that you might spend a day shooting and not get a single image that you like or works, and you won't really know for a few days at least as you wait. It connects you and grounds you to a material reality and a patience that seems lost with digital. I also think the grain texture remains forever different, and in my opinion, what I find to be more beautiful. — Anton Yelchin

A high-performing digital mind can think logically, but outside of the box as well. — Pearl Zhu

The connectivity of the cloud and the prevalence of tablets and smartphones have eroded the traditional online/offline divide. Within a short time we will most probably stop thinking of it as 'online.' We will simply be connected, all the time, everywhere, and the online world will be notable only by its absence when that connection breaks. — David Amerland

What's next for technology and design? A lot less thinking about technology for technology's sake, and a lot more thinking about design. Art humanizes technology and makes it understandable. Design is needed to make sense of information overload. It is why art and design will rise in importance during this century as we try to make sense of all the possibilities that digital technology now affords. — John Maeda

Free software is part of a broader phenomenon, which is a shift toward recognizing the value of shared work. Historically, shared stuff had a very bad name. The reputation was that people always abused shared things, and in the physical world, something that is shared and abused becomes worthless. In the digital world, I think we have the inverse effect, where something that is shared can become more valuable than something that is closely held, as long as it is both shared and contributed to by everybody who is sharing in it. — Mark Shuttleworth

I think it's okay that there's digital music out there, because that does mean more people have access. I mean, you're a student, and you're studying music, and you want to find a CD of a whole work, but there's one piece that intrigues you. It's easy to get that piece for a dollar for the most part. And it's so easy for people to carry around music digitally. — Gail Zappa

I get the sense many people are unsure about their digital media allocation. Even those who believe they are progressive in their thinking wonder if they have got it right. — Mark Renshaw

Well digital media and social media are eliminating the middle man - in the old days, you had to go through the editors. Or the television producer, you know? Now you have people talking directly to each other, globally who have never met. I think you put the "word" in "word of mouth." — Kelly Cutrone

Poetry of all the forms of literature I think is the most suited for the digital age and for the shorter attention spans and all of that. It Twitters very easily, some lyric poems and it's very easy to zip a poem to someone, so that's one of the things I think is wonderful about poetry in the digital age. — Rita Dove

Think of it: the lowest common denominator in being digital is not your operating system, modem, or model of computer. It's a tiny piece of plastic, designed decades ago by Bell Labs' Charles Krumreich, Edwin Hardesty, and company, who thought they were making an inconspicuous plug for a few telephone handsets. Not in their wildest dreams was Registered Jack 11 - a modular connector more commonly known as the RJ-11 - meant to be plugged and unplugged so many times, by so many people, for so many reasons, all over the world. — Nicholas Negroponte

There's going to be no more digital enhancements or digital additions to anything based on any film I direct. I'm not going to do any corrections digitally to even wires that show ... If 1941 comes on Blu-ray I'm not going to go back and take the wires out because the Blu-ray will bring the wires out that are guiding the airplane down Hollywood Blvd. At this point right now I think letting movies exist in the era, with all the flaws and all of the flourishes, is a wonderful way to mark time and mark history. — Steven Spielberg

Even more dramatic, Alex Todorov at Princeton has shown us that judgments of political candidates' faces in just one second predict 70 percent of U.S. Senate and gubernatorial race outcomes, and even, let's go digital, emoticons used well in online negotiations can lead to you claim more value from that negotiation. If you use them poorly, bad idea. Right? So when we think of nonverbals, we think of how we judge others, how they judge us and what the outcomes are. We tend to forget, though, the other audience that's influenced by our nonverbals, and that's ourselves. — Amy Cuddy

Ultimately, the question, "does it really matter?" is a question of humanity. If you're into the pursuit of fidelity, it's a really interesting question. Personally, I don't think digital sounds good, but that's just my own feeling. — John Vanderslice

I don't think there is any advantage to digital unless it's in a case like Slumdog Millionaire, where you have to get a shot and a big bulky film camera is out of the question. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I think that if you're a digital thinker, you can use a digital camera. — Abbas Kiarostami

I don't think that digital technology will ever take away the humanity of storytelling, because storytelling is entirely, in and of itself, a wholly human concern. — David Fincher

Imagination, abstraction, creativity, and coherence etc are some inherently cognitive and mental elements of architect-wise thinking. — Pearl Zhu

I think people are trying out ideas with the new technology and it's too early to say where it's going exactly. But again, whether it's digital or paper, it doesn't matter. It's words that somebody is reading and getting an experience out of that reading. That's all that really matters. — Paul Auster

You have to be able to look objectively at the problem, deflating the emotional part of it. — Pearl Zhu

Critical Thinking narrows and creative thinking expands, but they must work in tandem for problem solving and decision making. — Pearl Zhu

Now that photography is a digital medium, the ghost of painting is coming to haunt it: photography no longer retains a sense of truth. I think that's great, because it frees photography from factuality, the same way photography freed painting from factuality in the mid-nineteenth century. — Vik Muniz

If you need to strap a camera to you or get in a small space, then it makes sense to use digital.I do think it is possible to use a digital camera artistically, but it can only be good if you are using film technique. Film has grain, and digital has pixels, and there is not that much of a difference, but digital does not replace the need to create a scene and light it properly and spend time considering the shot. — Vilmos Zsigmond

Every time you run a 35mm print, it picks up scratches. It picks up dirt. Sometimes it breaks, and you have to re-splice it. You lose frames. This doesn't happen with digital or Blu-ray. I think that's great. Because I love the new media. — William Friedkin

Analysis and synthesis are different mental muscles to serve different purposes. — Pearl Zhu

When you see Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master and it's shot on film at 75mm it's ... you know. It's hard to compare. But I still think that digital is close enough, and I think it's getting closer and closer to be ... there's no doubt it's going to be taking over completely unfortunately. — Fredrik Bond

Much to my chagrin, I think that cinema has gone the wrong way in America because in many ways, I pioneered the use of video which eventually became digital video. Everyone can do it; it's Pop Art time: "Everything is art, why should you take it so seriously, after all it's kind of like a clambake." I don't buy that. — Rob Nilsson

My hope is that digital technology will level things out more and that it will eventually eliminate favoritism. But technology cannot do it alone. The audience has to become more discriminating as well and not buy into every big tentpole movie because they have been brainwashed into thinking that's the movie to see. — Lexi Alexander

I think even though the court is moving toward trying to translate the Constitution into a digital age, there was that wonderful unanimous decision that Chief Justice Roberts wrote saying you can't search a cellphone on arrest without a warrant. — Jeffrey Rosen

The mind is an innovation engine of any human progress, but also the root cause of almost all human problems. — Pearl Zhu

People think that digital language is a fixed language, but it's not: it's very fluid. It's like I'm doing a painting where the paint refuses to dry. — Neville Brody

I want the music to be heard as close to when I made it, as much as possible. I don't want to get into some "future of the music industry" thing, or where I stand on digital this or that, but I think it's ridiculous that a lot of people in the industry plan so far ahead that it makes a lot of improvisation impossible and makes a lot of people's expectations fixed and not fluid. — Bradford Cox

I think distribution has become a lot harder. With the whole explosion of digital video, there's just a lot more people making films. Distributors have a lot more choice. I do think there's an audience out there for small films. It's obvious to me what the studios do: they've co-opted independent film. They all have their independent arm. They can afford to crush the competition. — Steve Buscemi

The opportunity to shoot and get the depth out of the film - that I don't think you can get out of digital - is a huge deal for me. — Brad Furman

Using two-dimensional lenses to perceive the multi-faceted world can limit your ability to observe the world more objectively. — Pearl Zhu

The organizational fit is the good balance of the fitting attitude and misfit thinking. — Pearl Zhu

There are a number of times when we have found, there's a number of old-school special effects in here that are fantastic, but there are definitely some times that we went digital and you're not going to tell the difference, I don't think. I think it just serves the storytelling because that's just the era that we live in. — Kimberly Peirce

Artificial intelligence is based on the assumption that the mind can be described as some kind of formal system manipulating symbols that stand for things in the world. Thus it doesn't matter what the brain is made of, or what it uses for tokens in the great game of thinking. Using an equivalent set of tokens and rules, we can do thinking with a digital computer, just as we can play chess using cups, salt and pepper shakers, knives, forks, and spoons. Using the right software, one system (the mind) can be mapped onto the other (the computer). — George Johnson

Digital also had this evolution that came out of post-production. And George Lucas did it because he wanted to make a big movie with special effects. Sort of the opposite of what you'd think is an indie film. So it's coming from both these angles. — Christopher Kenneally

Thinking professionally" is the first step in building a high-performance digital Board. — Pearl Zhu

I do think there's something about the digital age that is increasingly dehumanising us. We're in this very weird place where we're being pulled into experiences that aren't really experiences at all. — J.J. Abrams

The serialization through the Internet or through digital portals, means of ways of communicating, and I think that's great. — Keanu Reeves

I think everybody wants to be the best at what they do and for me I was never really there, plus it was in a time that just preceded the insanity of internet promotion around 2005 and 2006. Obviously through the digital revolution things have moved very quickly and a lot of artists got left behind. — Doc Brown

I think crossing into the digital age is the big move for the industry. I think it will be the biggest thing that's happened while I've been making movies. I equate it to the invention of color or sound, and I don't see any other major technical process coming along and changing that. — George Lucas

We know that ATT is upgrading their TCI network to provide voice services, but we believe that upgrade will go beyond that, for total interactivity at very reliable rates. Video telephone calls, downloading music videos, television broadcasts, online newspapers - all of this would be in digital mode. I think they certainly intend to be the one-stop shop and once they do that, it will force the other multiple system operators to follow suit. — Robert Rosenberg

Our company has been very forward-thinking about digital technology and the opportunity that it gives us. As we move into a world where we have more and more devices at our disposal, that really means more and more opportunities for the Walt Disney Co. to reach you: through our entertainment, through all of our divisions. — Anne Sweeney

Digital technology, you see, is not the villain here. It simply offers another dimension. I'm not sure if it's a farther remove from reality than analogue. I think if we can speak of reality, if reality and representation can be spoken of in the same sentence, if reality even exists any more, digital is simply another way of encoding that reality. — Lewis Baltz